# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 04 29_S139
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

139

For the "Lutheraner."

One often hears the present age praised as a very enlightened one. That this can hold true only with qualification, one has, alas, all too often occasion to be convinced, and to this end a paper lately appeared in St. Louis, entitled "Freie Blätter. Ein Organ für religiöse Aufklärung. Herausgeben und redigirt von Franz Schmidt," furnishes once more a striking proof. This is the case especially in an article contained in that paper and headed "Von der Bibel." The same has for its motto: "They decided by vote which books should be the Word of God, and which not. Such books as had a majority of votes in their favor were declared to be the Word of God. Had they voted otherwise, all the people who have hitherto called themselves Christians would have believed otherwise, — for the faith of the latter derives from the votes of the former. Who the people were who did this, we do not know; they gave themselves the general name 'the Church,' and this is all that we know of the matter." The foregoing words are borrowed as a motto from Thomas Paine, an English freethinker, who has found many readers also among the Germans, at least the German readers here, and they show well enough of what spirit he is the child from whom they proceed.

It is a well-known thing that the books which are found in the New Testament date from the second half of the first century, and that they were originally separate. For the holy men wrote at different times, in different places, and in part also, at first at least, for different persons. For example, the first epistle to the Thessalonians was probably written in the year 52, the Gospel of John in the eighties; the Gospel of Matthew in Palestine, the epistle to the Colossians at Rome; the epistle to the Philippians was sent to the north, that to Titus in Crete to the south, that to the Romans to the west, that to the Hebrews to the east of the Roman empire and of the Christian Church of that day, which soon pervaded that whole empire. However scattered these writings were at first, they nevertheless soon became known in Christendom and were gathered in copies. By far the most held them all to be apostolic and inspired of God; only this was contradicted by some, that it held true also of the following seven: the epistle to the Hebrews, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, the epistle of James, of Jude, and the Revelation of John. Those books, to which therefore the four Gospels also belong, were called Homologoumena, to indicate that all are of one mind concerning them; the rest Antilegomena, to indicate that some doubted their genuineness. This is reported to us especially from the second century by the Church Fathers Irenaeus in Gaul, Tertullian in North Africa and Clement of Alexandria in Egypt; from the first half of the third century by the learned Origen at Alexandria; from the first half of the fourth century by the church historian Eusebius. It lay in the nature of the case that Christendom desired to come to a decision concerning the Antilegomena, and before the end of the fourth century we see particular churches occupied with it; first an eastern one, which held a gathering at Laodicea about the year 362, and recognized that the epistle to the Hebrews also, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, the epistle of James and of Jude were to be added to the Homologoumena as genuine; then a western one, which held a council in 393 in the city of Hippo Regius (where at that time the afterwards so renowned Augustine was presbyter) under Bishop Aurelius of Carthage, and came to the conviction that all seven Antilegomena were to be reckoned with the Homologoumena as genuine. This conviction was gradually shared by others; first a council at Carthage in 397, then Bishop Gelasius I of Rome at the beginning of the fifth century, and toward the end of the same a Roman council, finally every part of the Church. The fact which brought the whole Church so unanimously to the same result concerning the Canon was especially this, that the writings which had for a time been Antilegomena had, after the necessary inquiries made, manifestly the unimpeachable testimony of many that they were of apostolic origin, and that therefore, since the Antilegomena agreed with the recognized divine truth and with the Homologoumena, the objection which some raised against them arose from no other than accidental causes, and was therefore unfounded. To this was added the remarkable circumstance that, while in the course of time the Antilegomena came to be ever more generally recognized, the number of those who held other writings, which were then also in circulation (e. g. the History of Paul, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, etc.) to be genuine, ever more diminished.

This is a simple statement of the facts, which are to be found in every work bearing upon the subject, and are generally known. Thomas Paine now says: "They decided by vote which books should be the Word of God and which not. Who the people were who did this, we do not know; they gave themselves the general name 'the Church,' and this is all that we know of the matter." That must surely be called an ignorance, and in one who would speak of the matter, a gross ignorance. What he may mean by the little word "we"? If it is his comrades, the enemies of the Bible, then one must grant him quite right, for they are for the most part entangled in gross ignorance concerning the origin of the Holy Scripture. But if by "we" he understands the men living at this time generally, then it can only remind one of the fable of the ostrich, which, when pursued by the hunter and unable to escape any longer, hides its head, in the belief that if it sees, hears and knows nothing, it is just so with others. Ignorance has for its twin sister stupidity; both go hand in hand in Paine's words. For he says also: "Had they voted otherwise, all the people who have hitherto called themselves Christians would have believed otherwise, for the faith of the latter derives from the votes of the former." If, then, a number of people of whom one knows nothing except that they call themselves the Church resolve: This is to be believed, that is not to be believed, then other people also do likewise. I should like to know where Thomas Paine got that! From experience and sound common sense certainly not. If, for example, a number of preachers were now to come together and resolve that their congregations should believe this, and not believe that, would the congregations do it on that account, especially if it were against the faith of the congregations? Or, if the representatives assembled in Congress wished to resolve which works on politics should be held to set forth right principles, and which not, would the whole people on that account accept the one and reject the others? Th. Paine must surely believe that this would happen. But if no one lets a political conviction be forced upon him, how much less a religious one, at least when one can in some measure grasp, and has grasped, the difference between body and soul, time and eternity, and temporal and eternal welfare. And only he who is wholly ignorant of the history of the Church at the time when the Canon of the N. T. arose can suppose that men could then have been more easily led, or made to believe whatever one pleased. On the contrary, it was harder then, at least in matters of the Christian faith, because those who called themselves Christians were, in general, far better instructed, and far more concerned for the salvation of their souls, than is the mass of those who nowadays call themselves Christians. Examples of the independence of the congregations in that day are by no means lacking.

The weighed words of Th. Paine Mr. Schmidt has now made the motto of his essay, or rather of his essays (for to that first he promises to let others follow). Motto means, as is well known, a device or watchword. Since now in those words of Th. Paine ignorance and stupidity stand manifestly arm in arm, linked as a pair of sisters, Mr. Schmidt has chosen them for his guiding stars; and one must truly grant both parties the honor that his guiding star has led him faithfully, and he has followed his guiding star as faithfully, as appears sufficiently from Mr. Schmidt's own words.

To bring out a few things, he says in his essay: "The priestly caste felt the be-